After building a turbo miata like... 3 years ago now... blowing that motor. Then building a wicked 1.6, selling off the car/motor to brgracer(Tom) before ever finishing the turbo build. Then buying the car back from Tom a year later sans built motor. I am finally ready to turbo the same miata again.

Got most of my parts in minus v-bands that I'm still patiently waiting for. Spent a couple hours today putting on the oil feed/return, putting on the turbo and mani. Stuck the IC up in front of the rad but it is no yet fastened on by anything. I was just seeing how it would look (SICK NASTY YO!1).

Tomorrow I will run to lowes and get a new 14" saw blade for my cutoff saw and fab up my cold and hot side pipes. They will both be custom/welded. Only bought 4 couplers, and thats all I plan to use. I would start work on the exhaust and knock it out too, but alas I am waiting on said v-bands.

Setup will basically be the standard ol shizzle but with some nice touches. It already has a ACT HD which Tom had

- T3-60 from a Ford, rebuilt of course
- ETD Shorty manifold
- Fully v-banded 3" exhaust, turbo back
- Adaptronic ECU
- RX7 550cc injectors, clean and flowed to 585cc
- LC1 wideband
- Decent sized ebay IC and custom pipes
- ugh.....lots of fun

 

KEWL! you should get a better camera though

 

when do you think you'll sell this one?

 

I like that welded-on IWG-to-vband on the turbine exit. It reminds me of this one from ATP

Ultimate Internal wastegate valve for T3 5Bolt, high flow 3" V-band Style: atpturbo.com

 

Iphone camera FTL. I have a nice Sony but I need to find it and then recharge its batteries. These were just quick picks in the failing sunlight.

The only way it will be sold is if I cheap NB comes along and the price of the LS1 subframes drops in price a little.

Its the ebay version of the same thing. Reason its welded on is because like 4 of the bolts broke off in the housing when i went to rebuild the turbo. I said **** it on removing them and just welded away.

Anyways, I will hopefully have the IC piping completed tomorrow. Welding pipes with a mig takes no time at all. Scratching my head while figuring out what bends I need where might take a couple hours. My biggest worry currently is that I am 1 90deg bend short of what I need.

 

lol i give it a month bbefore you sell it then 3 before you buy it back agian.

 

You guys are making me out to be an urbansoot like character. I'm many times more wealthy than I was in my college days. So money is not the determining issue now like it was then. As long as the car keeps making me smile when I drive it and I don't have to fix it monthly like Scott then it will continue to be in my driveway daily.

 

i think welding a v-band on mine is the right answer some day.

hey bri, dont feel bad. i'd seen parts I sold to people come back up on the classifieds in a few weeks unused a few times.

 

^^ +1. I have three intercoolers in my garage right now. Only one of them is going in the car. Another one is brand new and unused, bought it and did not like the way it was going to fit. The third one is my old IC linked to in my thread.

My last turbo system I had for less than a year and sold it.

I feel like you do. I was poor before and all during college. And now, though it is not where near limitless, I have some disposable income to play with, and so I am having some fun. Besides, it is not like these are Ferraris or anything. I mean, $100 intercoolers?! So why not experiment. I love this cheap Chinese crap.

 

I have been on call for work all weekend so I haven't been able to be quite as productive as I had hoped. I was able to get the hot side pipe welded, grinded, and painted. As I thought I ran short of the bends I need to finish the cold side. Luckily I preempted this last thursday and already have the extra bends I will need coming in the mail tomorrow.

The hot side pipe consists of more or less 4 90deg bends. One is a little less. It's a perfect fit and smooth all the way through.

 

I thought there was an app for that?


Nice build. Subscribing!

 

Perfect timing. I just installed the same turbo on my 1.6. Should be interesting how they compare. I'm still using a 2.25 exhaust.

 

Just about have my cold side finished. Welding on the BOV and IAT flanges now. Hope to get a start on the DP too.

 

YAY!!! More crappy Iphone pics. I finished the cold side IC pipe and forgot to take pics. Then proceeded to start and nearly finish my DP.

The outlet is not the ideal turn but is required to clear the rear shelf. It is for the most part a steady curve. I fitted bend by bend and when I welded on the final bend to make it start going straight back I found that I can no longer fit the DP back down through the tranny tunnel. It hits on a combination of the steering shaft, the tranny, and the fram of the car. Luckily my flex pipe has slip fit connectors on both ends. So tomorrow I will be removing one and fitting it somewhere onto the DP so that I can get it to be removable. That should take me about an hour with head scratching, trips under the car, marking, and welding. After that I will get working on the rest of the exhaust which I can only assume will be much easier since there are no strange twists and turns under the car.

I hope to have the full exhaust completed by 3-4pm. Then I will finish wiring in the adaptronic and crank it over for first start. I also got my "new to me" Tein Flex in the mail today. Debating throwing them on as is with stock rates, or emailing Emilio to get some 9K springs for the front. I'll make another thread for that.

 

I like it except for that first "?" bend. You've got a welder and a chop saw... make a half dozen 3/4" pie-wedges and make it smoother. It's the fourth of July. Make sparks!

You know I wouldn't suggest spending $100+ on a stainless donut. But the wedge idea would work.

 

I wanted to do something like that Matt, but there is literally no room in the X, Y, or Z plane. As it is the dp is touching the heater hoses and they will need to be wrapped. The back side of that radius is smooth enough for me. The car will still make 230+ whp either way. So im not going to **** with it any further. I need to make sure I can finish the rest of the exhaust with the bends I have. I'll look into a different solution in the future (not likely though if it puts down decent numbers).

I know the vertical weld looks fugly, but I actually cut that section and used the vice to bend the top inward to the top bend. On the inside it is a smooth transition.

 

what size is the turbine outlet vband? 3" or smaller?

 

The entire thing is 3" turbo back. Progress:

 

D3wD ur teh c00|3st

 

Tell me something I don't already know.